


Doctor, Doctor, Doctor

by cazmalfoy



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-19
Updated: 2014-05-19
Packaged: 2018-01-25 19:03:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1659086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cazmalfoy/pseuds/cazmalfoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I've heard a rumour that if you say his name three times it will bring him back from the dead to wreak havoc on the mortal world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doctor, Doctor, Doctor

**Author's Note:**

> This is heavily inspired by Beetlejuice, or any urban legend where you say a name three times and someone comes back from the dead.
> 
> Bonus points if you can spot the Angel reference.

The Doctor was bored. He had been dead for centuries and that was enough to make anyone lose their mind. He had lost count of the number of times he’d wanted to do something but unfortunately in order for him to actually do anything he had to be invoked by a mortal.

There had been a number of times that people had almost succeeded in invoking him. Since they had become popular, every time someone began a ‘doctor, doctor’ joke, he had found himself getting excited. Only to have his hopes dashed once he realised that he wasn’t actually being awakened.

At midnight on the thirteenth day of the second month, the Doctor felt the presence of someone milling in the cemetery around his gravestone. Deciding that he would go and see what was going on, he focused on projecting himself next to his grave.

Regardless of the fact that it was the middle of the night, the grassy area the Doctor had become so used to seeing was brightly lit as though it were noon. The moon above his head was full and casting its light over the graveyard, leaving very little in shadow.

Almost immediately the Doctor saw who had disturbed his boredom. Less than three feet away from his tombstone was a small group of teenagers, possibly six or seven of them, who couldn’t have been any older than eighteen or nineteen. They were loud, rowdy and had clearly been drinking more than they probably should.

“Come on, Rose!” a dark skinned boy shouted and the Doctor winced. It had been so long since there had been anyone in his stretch of the cemetery that his voice sounded as though it was on par with one of the airplanes he had heard flying overhead in the past.

Several feet away - and much closer to his grave, the Doctor noticed – a blonde girl who was roughly the same age slowed her pace and turned around to face the speaker. It was clear to the Doctor that she was the Rose person the teenager had been addressing earlier. “We came all this way, Mickey; I’m not leaving without having a look,” she answered, pointing in the direction of the Doctor’s headstone.

Mickey shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other, before huffing in annoyance and stomping over to her. “Fine,” he muttered through his teeth as he reached into his pocket and fished out a torch. “But if we end up getting killed by some kind of angry ghost, I’m blaming you.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “I understand completely,” she assured him. “Don’t you think the torch is over kill? It’s almost broad daylight out here.”

The male teenager glared at her even as he tightened his grip on the torch. “I don’t care,” he retorted. “I’m not about to let something jump out at me.”

Not for the first time the Doctor wished his apparition was visible to mortals prior to him being invoked. There had been many an occasion where he had been desperate in his want to scare the living daylights out of some kid who didn’t believe ghosts existed.

Instead, he was forced to hover and watch the couple head towards his tomb while the remainder of their friends got bored and shouted various phrases at them; most of which seemed to involve leaving the cemetery.

Rose swallowed and reached out, placing her hand in Mickey’s and squeezing reassuringly as they edged closer and closer to the tomb stone which was relatively small in comparison to those surrounding it. “The Doctor,” she read once they were close enough to read what was inscribed.

Mickey scoffed and rolled his eyes. “What kind of name is that?” he muttered. “Everyone has a last name; even Cher and Madonna.”

He winced when Rose elbowed him in the ribs, telling him to shush. “I’ve heard a rumour that if you say his name three times it will invoke him and he’ll return from beyond the grave to wreak havoc on the mortal world,” she informed her friend, dropping her voice in an attempt to make herself sound scarier.

Clearly her attempt worked, the Doctor noted when the colour seemed to drain from Mickey’s face and he took a step back. “Rose,” he began, licking his lips with obvious nervousness. “I don’t think we should be playing around with this kind of stuff.”

Rose laughed and shook her head. Her blonde hair fell in front of her eyes and she pushed it aside with obvious irritation. “Come on, Mickey,” she cajoled. “It’s only a bit of fun. What harm can a name do? I say we try it.”

“What?” Mickey yelped, jumping back a good foot away from his friend. “Are you insane?”

“It’s only a name,” she retorted, a mocking tone in her voice. “Doctor,” she whispered. “Doctor.”

Mickey took another step back, moving even further away from his friend. “Rose, stop it now; you’ve had your fun.”

Rose chuckled darkly and paused. During the silence the Doctor found himself holding his own non-existent breath and crossing his fingers. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been so close to being invoked and the feeling it provoked in him was completely indescribable. “Doc-tor,” she finished with a smirk, drawing the word out as she said it.

The Doctor threw his head back and laughed with more enthusiasm than he had ever laughed with in his life. She had done it; after so many years of waiting to be set free, she had finally been stupid enough to believe the rumours and release him. There had been plenty of foolhardy children who had visited him with the intention of doing so, but they had always backed out after the second repetition of his name.

He could feel something inside of him changing and knew that he was slowly moving from the spirit plane where he had been lodging to a fully corporeal form. Since it had never happened before, he presumed it would be a long process, given by the length of time it was taking for the feeling to spread through his body.

“Look, Rose,” Mickey said, tugging on his friend’s arm. “It didn’t work.” There was obvious relief in his voice as he spoke.

Rose huffed impatiently. “We have to give it a minute,” she muttered, rolling her eyes. “This kind of stuff doesn’t just happen immediately.”

Mickey growled. “How do you know? Have you ever tried to invoke the spirit of a dead guy before?” When she grumbled that she hadn’t actually ever done anything similar, he placed his hand in hers and managed to successfully pull her away from the stone.

The Doctor could slowly feeling himself becoming visible and knew it wouldn’t be long before he was fully able to do everything he had been wanting to do for centuries. He knew the instant that the transition had been successful when the teenager couple looked over their shoulders and screamed before fleeing. It had worked. He was free finally.

Chuckling to himself, the Doctor took several experimental steps forward. Even though he had been pretty active on the spiritual plane, he had mostly floated between the headstones. It had been the day of his death that he had taken his last steps and part of him had worried that, somewhere along the line, he had forgotten how to walk. 

Thankfully, he seemed to remember what to do and, after a hesitant start, he marched between the rows of graves, looking for several in particular. His friends from the spirit plane were buried in spots that were scatted across the cemetery and he had sworn to them that, the instant he was freed he would attempt to free them also.

Stopping in front of a headstone that was larger than his own, the Doctor knelt on the ground and read the writing that was inscribed there to ensure he was where he should be. The last thing he wanted to do was bring back someone who he either didn’t know or hated.

Once he was certain everything was as it should be, the Doctor rose and put his hands on his hips. Now he was finally free to do as he pleased, he began to doubt whether he was actually capable of bringing his friends back as he had originally promised. Not to mention that, even if he was capable, he had no way of knowing how to go about actually doing so.

With a sigh he closed his eyes and visualised his friend before him. He forced himself to focus on the other man’s features; his dark hair, brown eyes and perpetual scowl. Hopefully the more he was able to visualise, the easier it would be to actually do what he was hoping to.

“Well, you finally managed to get out, I see,” a very familiar voice said and the Doctor opened his eyes. 

He grinned widely when he saw that Owen Harper was standing before him, looking as irritated as he usually did. “I told you I would,” he stated, a pout forming on his face, although the effect was ruined somewhat by the fact that was smiling as he moved forward and embraced his friend.

Owen allowed himself to be hugged, before pushing the other man away and glancing down at his stone. “You really managed to do it, didn’t you?” he asked, looking up and meeting the Doctor’s eyes.

The Doctor grinned widely and nodded his head. “I did,” he agreed. “Come on,” he added. “Let’s go wake up the others.”

Owen huffed and stomped after the Doctor as they headed down one of the many rows of tombstones. “Do we have to?” he grumbled, to which he received no answer.

Their next destination was a pair of graves on the south side of the cemetery. Over one hundred years ago, the husband and wife had been buried beside each other less than twelve months apart and now the Doctor was determined to bring them back as well.

Owen huffed in annoyance and folded his arms across his chest with a petulant expression as he waited for the Doctor to bring the couple back.

As he had with Owen, the Doctor tilted his head back and closed his eyes, focusing on his friends and concentrating on changing them from their current status as spirits to fully corporeal. He knew he had been successful when he heard Owen click his tongue and huff once more.

Opening his eyes, he grinned at the couple he could see before him. Ianto Jones and his wife, Gwen, had been in their mid-twenties when they had both been killed in a riding accident and as a result their spirits looked just as young; as did Owen’s and the Doctor’s.

“You did it!” Gwen gushed, rushing forward and throwing her arms around the Doctor before he could react or catch her.

The result was them flying to the ground as her momentum carried them over. Laughing affectionately, the Doctor pressed a kiss to her forehead before rolling her off of him, getting to his feet and offering her his hand in assistance. “You sound like Owen,” he mumbled, taking a step back as she dusted herself off. “I told you I would; why doesn’t anyone believe me?”

Ianto chuckled and rolled his eyes. “It could be because you’ve been promising that someone will bring you back for decades,” he pointed out, earning him a glare from the Doctor and a swat on the arm from Gwen. “What?” he exclaimed, looking at his wife with an innocent expression on his face. “I’m just saying,” he added.

Gwen breathed the sigh of a woman who had been suffering for far longer than she thought was appropriate, before turning to the Doctor. “What about-?”

“Yeah,” Ianto interrupted, turning his attention to the Doctor as well. “You promised you’d bring him back as well,” he reminded him.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. “He was next on my list,” he assured the couple.

Owen growled in annoyance. “Oh no,” he stated, holding his hand up and shaking his head. “I draw the line at you bringing him back.”

Ianto glared at him with narrowed eyes. “We could always get the Doctor to send you back,” he spat in irritation. “You’re the one that-,”

Gwen sighed and stepped in between them, holding her hands up in an attempt to stop them from arguing. “Stop it both of you,” she ordered, glaring from Owen to her husband. “Provoking each other into a fight isn’t going to solve anything.”

The pair continued to glare at each other for a further five minutes before Owen blinked and broke the contact, looking over at the Doctor in annoyance. “If he comes near me, I’ll tear him to pieces, got it?”

“Understood,” the Doctor assured him, ushering their small group to a different corner of the cemetery where the fifth member of their party lay at rest. Even though he could see why Owen was upset, he also resented the other man for making things so difficult. Ever since the former veterinarian had been bitten by a werewolf and then killed by the residents of the local god-fearing town, he had been bitter and resentful. Not to mention he just didn’t seem to be able to get along with anyone for an extended period of time.

In front of the crumbling gravestone, they paused and the Doctor slowly read the inscription. The man lying beneath them was even older than the Doctor himself and the state of his headstone was proof of that; it was covered in moss and crumbling.

Repeating what he had done to bring the others back, the Doctor closed his eyes and focused. He could feel energy pouring out of him and dissipating into the ether, but nothing happened. After ten minutes of trying, he opened his eyes and looked at the others in helplessness as he panted from the exertion.

“I don’t understand,” Gwen whispered. “Why isn’t it working?” she asked, looking fearfully at her husband, Owen and then back at the Doctor.

The Doctor glanced back at the headstone and whispered, “I don’t know. Perhaps, I-,”

A ghostly cough interrupted him and he frowned deeply, glancing around even though he knew it was fruitless. As they were now corporeal, their ability to see the spirit world was on a par with that of a regular human. The cough sounded again and the Doctor could have sworn it was a familiar sound.

“Did that sound like-?” he began, trailing off when he saw that the others were all nodding their heads. “Of course!” he exclaimed, hitting himself in the forehead with the heel of his hand. “I don’t know anyone smarter to figure out why it isn’t working.”

Grumbling to himself about how much of an idiot he was, the Doctor closed his eyes and a few seconds later he heard, “Thank you! I thought you weren’t going to get the hint.” He opened his eyes to see Toshiko Sato standing before him. 

He blushed deeply and smiled apologetically at her. “I’m sorry,” he apologised. “I should have realised you’d know what to do.”

Tosh nodded her head firmly. “Yes, you should,” she retorted. As a former spy during World War II, Tosh was smarter than an average spirit and it didn’t take long for her to turn back to the Doctor with a smile on her face. “It’s going to take all five of us to bring him back,” she advised them. “He’s simply been dead for too long.”

The Doctor’s mouth dropped open in realisation; of course, it made perfect sense that they would simply need more than his energy. “Do we have to hold hands?” he asked. The question provoked an expletive from Owen, but he ignored the former werewolf in favour of listening to Tosh’s answer.

Tosh chuckled and shook her head. “Only if you’re lonely,” she stated. “I suggest we all focus our energy on bringing him back.”

When all but Owen nodded, the Doctor turned to glare at him. “If I even think you’re doing less than your share, I’ll send you back,” he cautioned with a very serious tone in his voice.

Owen rolled his eyes. “Look, can we just get on with his?” he muttered, fixing his gaze on the stone and refusing to look away.

Collectively they turned and began focusing their attention on the stone and bringing back the man whose name it bore. Even though they were all contributing, making him corporeal sapped a lot of energy from the Doctor and he presumed it was doing the same to the others. Even though he wanted to check on them, he didn’t dare shift his focus of attention and check.

“Okay, guys you can stop,” a familiar voice said another ten minutes later and the Doctor opened his eyes to see the young-looking man they had been trying to bring back standing before them.

The Doctor grinned and clapped him on the back. “Good to see you, Jack,” he said, earning him a brilliant white grin from the other man. “You look a bit pale though,” he added.

Owen rolled his eyes and scoffed. “He’s a vampire; he’s always pale,” he grumbled under his breath.

Jack Harkness turned to glare at the former-vet. “Better a vampire than a dog,” he hissed, baring his fanged teeth at Owen.

This time it was Ianto that stepped between them. “Are we going to have to bang your heads together?” he asked, looking from Owen to Jack with a serious expression; although his gaze did linger on Jack for longer than it had on Owen. “Jack, the Doctor already promised to send Owen back if he didn’t behave himself; I’m assuming the same applies for you too.” He glanced over at the Doctor who nodded his head in agreement. “And Owen, I suggest if you don’t have anything nice to say to Jack, you don’t say anything at all. Got it?” he demanded.

He waited with a raised eyebrow until they both nodded with petulant expressions on their faces. “Good,” Ianto said, looking back at the Doctor. “Any ideas what we were going to do once you brought us back?” he questioned.

A brilliant grin lit up the Doctor’s face and he bounced on the balls of his feet. “I was thinking we could find somewhere to go for a nice meal,” he suggested. “If there’s anywhere open at this time of night.”

Gwen and Owen let out murmurs of agreement as Ianto looked at Jack with an expression that bordered on concern. “What about Jack?” he asked. “Last I checked he was on a strictly liquid diet.”

An embarrassed look immediately appeared on the Doctor’s face and they could all tell that he felt bad for not thinking about that before Ianto had mentioned it. “Oh, Jack,” he murmured, his face coloured red slightly. “I…”

Jack shook his head, waving his hand and dismissing the Doctor’s apology. “You all go on without me,” he instructed. “I’ll wait here for you.”

The Doctor ran his hand through his hair and they could tell that he was torn between leaving and staying with Jack. Owen, seeing the Doctor’s expression, snarled in irritation. “For crying out loud, stop being a martyr, Harkness and come with us.”

The Doctor turned to Owen with a fierce glare that was rarely seen on his face. “What did I tell you?” he groused through gritted teeth.

“Calm down,” Owen retorted indignantly. “I was going to remind Dracula that I’m sure we could find a few virgins for him to feed off of.”

Jack growled, flashing his fanged teeth at Owen as he attempted to take a step forward. Only the feeling of a hand on his arm stopped him and he looked at Ianto who was looking at him with a disapproving look on his face. “Do not call me that,” he eventually said, looking away from Ianto and at Owen with venom in his eyes and voice.

Sensing that another fight was about to start between the two men, the Doctor stepped between them. “Well, that solves that problem. Let’s see if we can find somewhere that’s open this late, shall we?” he asked, holding his one out for Gwen and the other for Tosh.

Gwen giggled and nodded her head, sliding her arm through his as Tosh did the same. 

“Lead the way, Doctor,” Tosh said, smiling at him as they headed towards the cemetery gates. The others followed after a moment; Ianto made sure he was between Jack and Owen in case they started trying to brawl with each other again.

Owen, who was too busy glaring at Jack, let out a startled cry when he ran into the Doctor’s back as the other man stopped suddenly at the edge of the cemetery. “What are you doing?” he demanded. “I thought we were going out.”

“We were,” Gwen grumbled from where she was beside the Doctor, who remained silent. “But apparently there’s been a change of plan.”

Jack raised an eyebrow and studied the Doctor. “And that change of plan would be?” he inquired.

“We can’t get past the gate,” the Doctor muttered with a note of disbelief in his voice. 

“What?” Jack, Ianto and Owen all exclaimed in horror.

Tosh sighed and glanced at the offending iron gate that was blocking their path. “It appears that, even though we have been made corporeal, the invocation only works in the cemetery. If we try to go beyond the boundaries…” she trailed off, leaving them to finish the sentence for themselves.

Owen rolled his eyes. “This is bullshit,” he muttered, stalking past the others and attempting to climb over the five foot tall fence surrounding the cemetery. 

They watched with horror – and amusement in Jack’s case – as Owen was flung approximately six feet backwards where he landed on the ground with a pained grunt. “Well, that’s just bloody typical,” Owen grumbled, getting to his feet and dusting himself off. “I get brought back to life for the first time in over a century and can’t even do the things I love the most.”

“Eat, sleep and shag,” Jack recited from memory, rolling his eyes as he spoke. “You’re not the only one who can’t do what they want, Harper.”

Instead of ordering them to be silent, Ianto simply shook his head and remained firmly between the pair of them. “Any ideas about what we’re supposed to do now?” he questioned, looking over at the Doctor, his wife and Tosh.

Tosh and the Doctor both shook their heads with helpless expressions on their faces. “We could sit and talk,” Gwen suggested, her eyes wide as she glanced at the others.

Collectively they all rolled their eyes – Tosh included. But it was Owen who spoke first, “Oh yay!” he exclaimed, clearly mocking her. “That’s exactly what I’ve been dying to do since I was brought back to life.” He rolled his eyes again and stalked back to his grave to sulk.

The Doctor sighed heavily when he saw the upset on Gwen’s face. “Ignore him,” he advised her. “You know how he can get.”

Gwen nodded her head, biting her lip as she did so in a clear attempt to not cry. Ianto, seeing the distress his wife was in, moved forward automatically and wrapped an arm around her, squeezing her gently and pressing a soft kiss against Gwen’s forehead. He was so wrapped up in comforting his wife that he didn’t see the dejected look on Jack’s face.

Fortunately for Jack, no one else noticed because he quickly schooled his features into quiet indifference and moved closer. “I think that’s a great idea, Gwen,” he soothed, earning him a small gap-toothed smile from her. “We can talk and you can all watch the sunrise,” he added, looking around at the others.

The Doctor threw him a surprised look. “Why don’t you want to watch the sunset?” he asked in confusion.

Ianto, whose head had snapped around to look at the Jack the instant he had spoken, murmured, “That part really was true?” he breathed in surprise.

Gwen frowned deeply. “What part of what was true?” she demanded, looking between them.

The Welshman looked down at his wife. “You’ve read Dracula, haven’t you?” he questioned even though he knew she had; he had seen her reading it. Gwen nodded her head and Ianto added, “Meet the inspiration for the character.” He pointed over at Jack.

Tosh, Gwen and the Doctor all looked at Jack with wide eyes. “Really?” they breathed collectively.

Jack scowled and nodded his head. “Unfortunately,” he muttered through clearly gritted teeth. “Everything in that book was inspired by me,” he confessed. “It’s not something I’m proud of,” he added, a guilty look on his face.

Ianto reached out and placed a hand on his arm, squeezing reassuringly and receiving a small smile in response from Jack. “You’re not-,”

“Almost everything people know about vampires is a cliché, but there’s a reason clichés survive the passage of time,” Jack continued, cutting off Ianto’s words and looking at Tosh and Gwen with a glum expression on his face.

“You really can’t go out in daylight?” Gwen asked, with amazement in her voice. Jack shook his head and she gasped in horror. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?” she demanded. “We could have been out and you would have turned to dust with us being none the wiser.”

Jack blushed bashfully and lowered his head. “I haven’t been alive – as a mortal or a vampire – for so long that I didn’t realise it would be a problem,” he confessed. “I have no idea if things will still be the same now.”

The Doctor clapped his hands, directing their attention to him. “Okay,” he said. “Here’s the plan; we spend the night having fun, then when the sun rises we’ll find a crypt for Jack to sleep in during the day. I agree with Jack; there really is no way to know for certain if his allergy to the sunlight has changed, but I’d really rather not risk it.”

Jack flashed him a grateful smile and nodded his head. “Thanks,” he murmured.

The Doctor shifted on the spot, clearly uncomfortable with the appreciation that Jack was clearly showing. “Right, well,” he mumbled, coughing a little to clear his throat. “Let’s find somewhere to sit, shall we?” He offered his arms to Tosh and Gwen before heading in the direction Owen had disappeared in.

Less than four hours later, Owen, the Doctor, Tosh and Gwen were playing poker with the cards Owen had found lying on the floor near the Doctor’s tombstone. They had all presumed that the kids who invoked the Doctor left them behind when they’d fled in terror.

Gwen placed a card down and looked up, frowning when she realised that two of their party were missing. “Where are Jack and Ianto?” she asked softly, glancing around them in an attempt to find the others.

The others glanced around and shrugged their shoulders. “I think they went that way a bit ago,” Tosh answered, playing her hand as she spoke before pointing east.

The Welshwoman frowned and placed her cards face down on the grass between them. “I’m going to see if I can find them,” she stated, pushing herself to her feet and brushing her long skirt off.

She moved away from the group, heading between the rows of graves in search for the vampire and her husband. She passed seventeen rows before she spotted a flash of white out of the corner of her eye. Turning on her heel, she headed towards the white and realised halfway there that what she had actually seen had been the white of Ianto’s shirt.

“Ianto, what are you doing?” she asked, placing her hands on her hips as she headed towards him. 

Ianto was leaning back against a mausoleum while Jack knelt on the ground, inspecting the inscription that was engraved there. “Helping Jack find somewhere to sleep,” he advised her when she was closer. 

Jack nodded his head in agreement and sat back on his heels. “This one is sealed pretty tight, but we should be able to get it open,” he explained, looking over his shoulder and flashing Gwen a brilliant grin.

“Oh,” Gwen murmured. “I’ll get the others and we’ll help you open it.” She turned on her heel and fled back towards where they had been playing cards before Jack or Ianto could stop her.

Before they knew it, Gwen returned with Tosh, the Doctor and Owen – although the former-werewolf had accompanied them under protest. 

“Okay, let’s get this tomb open,” the Doctor said, rolling up his sleeves. “It’s almost sunrise.”

Jack frowned and looked up at the sky, wincing when he saw that the other man was correct. “I hadn’t realised how late it was,” he confessed, his cheeks reddening slightly.

Ianto chuckled and pushed himself away from the stone he was leaning on. “Don’t worry,” he assured the vampire, patting him on the shoulder. “We’ll get you secured before the sun comes up.”

As they all moved to the door of the mausoleum, Tosh leant her head on Ianto’s shoulder and whispered, “Your trousers are unfastened,” in his ear. 

Thankfully for Ianto her voice was far too quiet to be heard by the others. “Thanks,” he murmured, quickly fastening his trousers before the others noticed.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,” she assured him.

The tomb was harder to open than they had originally thought it would be and it took almost another half an hour before they had managed to get the door open enough so Jack would be able to slip through.

He was about to do so when the Doctor frowned deeply and rubbed a hand across his stomach. Jack caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced over at him. “What’s wrong?” he asked in concern.

“I don’t know,” the Doctor answered, wincing as pain shot through him. “I think there’s something wrong with the invoka-,”

Before he could finish his sentence he vanished from their sight, drawing a cry of horror from Tosh and Gwen. “What happened?” they demanded in unison, whirling around and staring at the men as though they knew the answer.

They shrugged their shoulders; each of them looking as helpless as the rest. “I don’t-,” Owen let out a cry of pain and doubled over as he clutched his stomach. “What the-?” He didn’t get to finish his sentence before he too vanished from sight.

Gwen wailed and clutched tightly at her husband’s arm as she stared fearfully at the spot where the werewolf had once stood. “What’s going on?” she whimpered, pressing her face against Ianto’s shoulder and closing her eyes.

Ianto pressed a kiss to her hair. “I don’t know,” he responded quietly. “Maybe something went wrong with-,” He too was cut off mid sentence by a bolt of pain that shot through him at the same time Gwen let out a cry as well. 

Jack and Tosh exchanged nervous glances as the couple vanished for their sight just like the Doctor and Owen had. 

“I think that means I’m next,” Tosh whispered, trying to ignore the dread she could feel swelling in her stomach. 

The vampire smiled sadly and wrapped his arms around her. “It’ll be okay,” he whispered, kissing her forehead as he held her tight. He knew that he was lying, but didn’t know what else to tell her when he had no idea what had actually happened to the others. “It’ll be okay,” he repeated, holding her even tighter when she groaned in agony.

He sighed heavily when he felt her warm comfort vanish from his arms and he was holding nothing but air where she had been. “Well, I suppose I’m next,” he muttered through his teeth. Thrusting his hands in his pockets, he turned on his heel and began pacing back and forth in front of the tomb they had spent a considerable amount of time opening.

Nothing happened immediately and he felt the sinking feeling that, while the others had seemingly vanished back into the ether, he would be stuck as a vampire for the rest of time; or at least until he was killed again by a vampire hunter. 

Jack let out a cry when a bolt of pain hit him so suddenly he doubled over and fell to his knees. His eyes were watering and it felt as though his insides were about to explode through his abdomen. 

“You can stop rolling around on the ground now,” an irritatingly familiar voice said from three feet away.

To his surprise and relief, the pain slowly began to ease and Jack lifted his head. He felt his jaw drop in disbelief when he saw that Owen, the Doctor, Tosh and Gwen were standing before him. “W-W-W-,” he stammered.

Owen rolled his eyes. “Complete sentences, Drac,” he ordered.

Jack glared at him and the Doctor stepped in front of the werewolf, blocking him from Jack’s line of sight. “It…” He winced and chuckled nervously. “It appears that the invocation was only applicable from the moment it was said until the following sunrise.”

“What?” Jack exclaimed, jumping to his feet and putting his hands on his hips. “So, we’re ghosts again?” The Doctor nodded his head with a regretful expression on his face. “Wonderful,” he muttered sarcastically.

The Doctor shifted and winced. “I’m sorry,” he apologised, not looking into their eyes. “I really didn’t know the invocation wasn’t permanent.”

Gwen smiled and patted the Doctor on the shoulder with a ghostly hand. “It’s okay,” she murmured. “There’s always next time.”

Owen rolled his eyes. “That’ll be fun,” he muttered sarcastically. “Another boring night where we can’t leave the cemetery, only to be pulled back here painfully.” He glanced around at the spiritual plane around them with a disdainful look on his face.

Tosh glared at him. “Owen,” she said a warning tone in her voice.

“What?” he demanded with a shrug of his shoulders. “I’m just saying what you’re all thinking.” Without saying another word, he turned and headed towards his own gravestone, mumbling something about peace and quiet as he went.

The Doctor sighed heavily and shook his head. “He’ll get over himself eventually,” he stated, glancing around at the others. “Hopefully it won’t be centuries before I’ll be invoked again.”

Jack and Ianto exchanged glances that went unnoticed by the others. “Hopefully not,” Jack said, unable to stop the smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth that mirrored Ianto’s own.

The End


End file.
